LOVE LANDS by Linda Nagaoka: Curatorial Statement

Working within the tradition of Landscape art making, Linda Nagaoka’s drawings and paintings in LOVE LANDS are interpreted through a contemporary feminine perspective.

Inspired by Exquisite Corpse, the surrealist ruse in which a piece of paper is folded in thirds and three different artists are requested to draw in turn — a head, a torso and legs — without the benefit of seeing the other two parts of the drawing, Nagaoka’s never-ending landscape drawings are a solitary take on the classic art game interpreted through her unique perspective.

With no true beginning and no foreseeable end, the drawing project runs from page to page, the next taking up where the last left off. Remove one panel and another, new interpretation will take its place.

Nagaoka was born to Japanese immigrants whose confinement in Internment Camps didn’t hinder their love for either their native culture or their adopted one. Growing up in Southern California during the mid-twentieth century when rural farms were still prolific, having a Landscape Designer as a father, and exposure to traditional Japanese landscape art were all strong influences on Nagaoka’s
aesthetic.

This long standing involvement in Landscape painting took a further turn when Nagaoka became a mother and started including images of her daughter in her work: taken along on the journey so to speak.

LOVE LANDS taps into a primal source of wonder as seen through a world positively altered by motherhood and cultural expectations and driven by nature, mystery and spirituality.

– Robert P. Stack, Editor, COLLECT / Curator, YELLOW PERIL GALLERY

LOVE LANDS is on display at Yellow Peril Gallery from Thursday, 17 May to Sunday, 10 June 2012. Gallery hours are Thursday and Friday, 3PM – 8PM, and Saturday and Sunday, 12PM – 5PM. Other days by appointment or chance. A portion of sales benefit The Earth School. Read the latest issue of COLLECT magazine online »